Here is a link with King Simeon and Queen Margarita attending an official fonction. The Queen looks a little bit lost. The king has always to look for her. I thought that after so many years of suffering and waiting, she will enjoy being back in Bulgaria and contributing to the society as a wife of a former king and prime minister. King Simeon as usual seems to be very comfortable in public. He loves Bulgaria and the Bulgarians.

All I know about Queen Giovanna was that she was very fond of animals and one of the local dogs´homes had their charity sale in the garden of her house in Monte Estoril. It was always very interesting and she quite often appeared and for that I will always remember her as a lovely person.

Boris III, Tsar of Bulgaria (January 30, 1894 – August 28, 1943), originally Boris Klemens Robert Maria Pius Ludwig Stanislaus Xaver (Boris Clement Robert Mary Pius Louis Stanislaus Xavier), son of Ferdinand I, came to the throne in 1918 upon the abdication of his father, following Bulgaria's defeat in World War I. This was the country's second major defeat in only five years, after the disastrous Second Balkan War (1913). Under the Treaty of Neuilly, Bulgaria was forced to cede new territories and pay crippling reparations to its neighbors, thereby threatening political and economic stability. Two political forces, the Agrarian Union and the Communist Party, were calling for the overthrowing of the monarchy and the change of the government. It was in these circumstances that Boris succeeded to the throne.

One year after Boris's accession, Aleksandar Stamboliyski (or Stambolijski) of the Bulgarian People's Agrarian Union was elected prime minister. Though popular with the large peasant class, Stambolijski earned the animosity of the middle class and military, which led to his toppling in a military coup on 9 June 1923. In 1925, there was a short border war, known as the Incident at Petrich, with Greece which was resolved with the help of the League of Nations. Also in 1925, there were two attempts on Boris's life perpetrated by leftist extremists. After the second attempt, the military in power exterminated in reprisals several thousand communists and agrarians including representatives of the intelligentsia.In the coup on May 19, 1934, the Zveno military organisation established a dictatorship and abolished the political parties in Bulgaria. King Boris was reduced to the status of a puppet king as a result of the coup. In the following year, he staged a counter-coup and assumed control of the country by establishing a regime loyal to him. The political process was controlled by the Tsar, but a form of parliamentary rule was re-introduced, without the restoration of the political parties.

Boris married Giovanna of Italy, daughter of Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, first in Assisi in October 1930 (attended by Benito Mussolini), and then at an Orthodox ceremony in Sofia. The marriage produced a daughter, Maria Louisa, in January 1933, and a son and heir to the throne, Simeon, in 1937. Tsar Boris was on the front cover of the Time Magazine of 20 January 1941 wearing full military uniform.

Tsaritsa Ioanna of Bulgaria (Italian: Giovanna Elisabetta Antonia Romana Maria and English: Jovanna Elizabeth Antonia Romana Mary) (13 November 1907 - 26 February 2000) was born Princess Giovanna of Savoy and was the last Tsaritsa of Bulgaria.

Giovanna was born in Rome, the third daughter and fourth child of King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and Queen Elena, former Princess of Montenegro. She was raised in the Villa Savoia and from a young age was aware of her aim in life: to further the House of Savoy's dynastic aspirations through marriage. Upon her christening into the Catholic faith, she was given the names Giovanna Elisabetta Antonia Romana Maria. Her older brother was the future Italian king Umberto II of Italy.

Although it would eventually prove to be of no assistance to Italy, Giovanna duly married Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria in Assisi in October 1930, in a Roman Catholic ceremony, attended by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. Bulgarians deemed her a good match, partly because of her mother's native Slavic ethnicity. At a second ceremony in Sofia, Bulgaria, Giovanna (who herself was daughter of a Roman-Catholic father and a born Orthodox mother) was married in an Eastern Orthodox Church ceremony, bringing her into conflict with the Roman Catholic Church. Giovanna adopted the Bulgarian version of her name, Ioanna. Giovanna knew the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Angelo Roncalli, the future Pope John XXIII who was able to help her. She and Boris had two children: Marie-Louise of Bulgaria, born in January 1933, and then the future Simeon II of Bulgaria in 1937.In the years prior to World War II, Giovanna became heavily involved in charities, including the financing of a children's hospital. During the war she counterbalanced her husband consigning Bulgaria to the Axis by obtaining transit visas to enable a number of Jews to escape to Argentina. Tsar Boris also proved less malleable than Hitler had hoped, and following a meeting in Berlin in August 1943, the Tsar became seriously ill and died, aged 49. While stress and a heart condition were the official reasons for his death, rumours that he had been poisoned by Hitler were voiced at the time and have since grown. Giovanna's son, Simeon, became the new Tsar and a Regency was established led by his uncle Prince Kyril, who was considered more pliable by the Germans.

One of most exciting days for me was this last Wednesday when I had the chance to talk on the phone with HRH Princess Maria Louisa di Savoya. The 77 year old Princess lives in a small town in New Jersey. I had the unique opportunity to talk to her in English and in Bulgarian. I hope I will keep in touch with her. This is entirely new experience for me and certainly most memorable.

Hope you don't mind me hawking my wares again ... with an article A Bride for Boris, now available on all Kindles .... from the USA to Germany to Japan to Brazil to the UK to Germany - all Amazon
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Before his marriage to Giovanna, Boris III promised Pope Pius that any children he and Giovanna had would be raised as Catholics.
Boris refused to sign a contract. The Pope agreed. The wedding date for Giovanna and Boris was set.

I like the fact that Boris III gave women the right to vote.
This was a nice recognition because women were not just housewives. They also were people.